As the kiss of dawn flitted our eyes awake and Larry’s voice seeped into our ears, we greeted our last full day aboard National Geographic Sea Bird. Brown bears abounded from the thick of the forest midway through morning stretches with our wellness specialist, Michelle Silsbee. As onlookers looked on with wide eyes, the day’s adventures unfolded. Frothing cascades escaped the mouth of Pavlof’s salmon stream, as we all clamored on shore ready for kayaks, hikes, and the likes. Exploring the waterways of the day’s activities, we beheld yet more bears! A sow and two cubs nibbled contently upon the bounty of summer’s sedges along the streamside. No sooner had they graced our early hiker’s presence, they turned right round and headed back into the Tongass National Forest’s foliage.
Despite our best efforts of dissuasion, certain adventurous spirits demanded plunging into a polar, watery abyss! Flinging themselves headlong at the icy blue’s mercy, many eyebrows were raised as the shock seeped in upon impact. Not often in life, are marvelous “brownies” enjoyed both gustatorily and visually on the upper deck as we began to head towards our final destination, Sitka.
Guests submitted creative compositions for the guest slideshow before “The David” bestowed his artistic presentation with a woody finish to the afternoon. Later on, the undersea chronicle finally came to fruition as the undersea specialist passionately salted the evening with the week’s marine phyla for all to see.
We laughed, we sang a brilliantly novel tune, and there was much merriment reflecting on the week’s events. We gathered on the bow to appreciate one last lustrous recline of the sun’s reach.
